W-1865JC-CLOD.doc

from "THE HISTORY and GENEALOGY of the COMSTOCK FAMILY in AMERICA":

THE COMSTOCK LODE

and

HENRY THOMPKINS PAIGE COMSTOCK

In the history of silver mining there is probably no area in the world more celebrated than the Comstock Lode.

This rich vein of combined silver and gold, located in Storey County, Nevada, produced three hundred and forty million dollars in silver during the thirty year period of 1860 to 1890. In its peak year of 1877 alone it yielded thirty-eight million dollars.

The story of its discovery and development is a fascinating saga of the early west told again in three recently published and widely circulated books. The first, and most important, is a reprint of the classic account published by "Dan De Quille" in 1875 - "History of the Big Bonanza." Dan De Quille was the nom de plume of William Wright, staff writer for the Virginia City "Enterprise," and the one best qualified to record the story. Unfortunately his book had very little sale, and is now a scarce item. The reprint, published by Alfred A. Knopf, and edited by Oscar Lewis and Robert Glass Cleland, is titled " The Big Bonanza," and makes this valuable source material generally available.

As a readily accessible historic account, George D. Lyman's "Saga of the Comstock Lode," issued in 1946 by Charles Scribner's Sons, is the book of next importance.

The third work is C.B. Glasscock's book, "The Big Bonanza," published by Binfords & Mort in 1931.

All three of these works give in detail accounts of the discovery and early development of the Lode when Henry Tompkins Paige Comstock was there. They all agree concerning his eccentricities and peculiar quirks of character. He is pictured as an illiterate prospector given to much boasting, with a vivid imagination that had little regard for facts. He was said to possess streaks of kindliness and impractical generosity, but these were interspersed with volatile outbursts. An account of Comstock's activities prior to his appearance in the Washoe mining district of Nevada, and of his later experiences after leaving Virginia City is not recorded. In Chapter X of Dan De Quille's book, there is a letter written by H T P Comstock in which he recounts his wanderings and various activities. It was written from Butte City Montana, when he was nearly fifty years of age, and is so full of obvious errors and bombastic imagining's as to be utterly worthless from the standpoint of history. It does, however, give a few clues as to his earlier and later activities, some of which have been in part confirmed from authentic sources. In this letter he gives his full name as Henry Thomas Paige Comstock. Perhaps he purposely substituted Thomas for Tompkins; but it is likely that he forgot he had been given his mother's family name.

Henry T P Comstock was born in Trenton, Ontario, Canada, in 1820. His father was Noah Bird Comstock, his mother Catherine Tompkins, daughter of Stephen Tompkins, Jr. of Watertown, NY.

Contrary to statements usually made, he came of good stock on both sides of the family. His father was in the lumber and hotel business and had moved in early life to Cooperstown NY. Later he went to Ontario Canada then to Cleveland Ohio and finally to Blissfield Michigan.

Henry was the fifth in a family of twelve children. Apparently he had a profound distaste for learning. It was stated by his friend and partner, Emanuel Penrod, that he could not read or write.

At a very early age he was bound out to the American Fur Company and according to his statement "trapped all over Canada, Michigan, and Indiana." It is claimed that he served in the Black Hawk War, but if so he must have been about the youngest recruit. He was only twelve years of age when Chief Black Hawk surrendered. He served in the Mexican War, and according to his statement, "...all through the Patriot War in Canada."

The drift of the American forty-niners into Calif found him in the gold country, where he probably prospected for a time without success, as the next reference to him is as a herder, driving a large band of sheep into the Carson Valley. The Piute Indians got most of his sheep and left him destitute; but the hardy Mormon pioneers of the district took him in and eventually he became on of the band of rough and ready prospectors who were washing gold in the stream beds of the area. Most of these men knew more about "tarantula juice" (whiskey) and Faro than they did about mineralogy.

There were, however two young easterners Allen and Hosea Grosch in the district who were competent mineralogists. They had come from Utica NY where their father A B Grosch was a Universalist clergyman. In the fall of 1855 they discovered an outcropping on the slopes of Mt Davison, which yielded a bluish ore testing high in silver. They kept their discovery secret from all but their father and endeavored to raise capital for the development of their claim. Failing in this they worked in the gold diggings in the hope of obtaining enough of the yellow metal to start their larger project.

Hosea Grosch injured his foot and died of tetanus in 1857. In an effort to raise funds, Allen and an associate Richard Burke, decided to take samples of their ore and maps of their claim to Calif. Henry T P Comstock was left in charge of the Grosch cabin wherein was housed their various effects including a locked chest full of ore samples charts and documents.

Grosch and Burke began their trek over the Sierran trails but were trapped by the Dec storms. After incredible hardships and the loss of all their equipment they were finally rescued more dead than alive by miners from Last Chance, Placer Co. Their feet and hands were frozen, and gangrene soon set in. There was no surgeon in camp, and the miners felt that only an amputation would save their lives. The operation was performed by men who were skilled in the use of pick and shovel. Allen Grosch died on Dec 19 1857. And so the two brothers who were the real discoverers of the Comstock Lode were gone. Richard Burke lived; and after his recovery returned to his native Canada.

When Henry T P Comstock learned of Allen Grosch's death he decided that it was his right to examine the contents of the locked chest in their cabin. In fact from that time on he claimed that the cabin was his personal property. When the chest was opened and found to contain only samples of ores with, to him, unintelligible charts and documents, Comstock flew into a rage, and destroyed everything that seemed to have any bearing on the Grosch brothers.

All that he could understand was that the peculiar blue ore had been found by the brothers somewhere on Mt Davison, presumably not far from the cabin and that it was rich in gold. He had no inkling that it was almost pure sulfide of silver. Thereafter Comstock spent much time in visiting the various doggings of the local miners and prospectors in search of that particular blue ore.

On Jan 28 1859 four miners working on a site at Gold Hill uncovered some bluish rock which yielded considerable gold. Comstock heard of the strike, and immediately looked them up. He was convinced that they had found the blue stuff he had been seeking, and tried to talk himself into a partnership on the basis of some shady rights that he claimed to have on the area. The miners were not convinced; but a portion of the site next to the discovery was unclaimed and Comstock filed on what remained.

The four miners who had located the Gold Hill out cropping were James Fennimore, known as "Old Virginny"; John Bishop, known as "Big French John"; Aleck Henderson, and Jack Yount. They had actually uncovered one end of the Lode, but not the main vein which had previously been found by the Grosch brothers.

In working the Gold Hill deposits, Comstock and the other miners had great difficulty in separating the gold from the "blue stuff," and spent much energy in loudly cursing it as they discarded great quantities of silver salt worth many times the value of the gold recovered.

One June evening, Comstock learned that two prospectors named Pete O'Riley and Pat McLaughlin were mining in Spanish Ravine near a spring where he had previously staked off a claim "for grazing purposes." Full of "sound and fury" he straightway hurried himself over to the diggings. There were Pete and Pat making their last cleanup for the day, with a mound of gold beside them. There was the real bluish ore!

Comstock stormed and threatened and finally talked himself and his partner, "Manny" Penrod into an interest in the claim. He also wrangled an additional hundred feet for himself on the basis of his water rights.

The claims thus staked out developed later into the famous Ophir and Mexican Mines which yielded millions of dollars in silver. To the ignorant men who found them, men interested only in gold and cursing the "blue stuff" that clogged their rockers, they brought only a pittance. Pat McLaughlin sold his interest for three thousand five hundred dollars. Emanuel Penrod let his go for eight thousand five hundred dollars. Pete O'Riley held on longer than the others, and finally sold out for forty thousand dollars, and eventually died an insane pauper. Comstock traded an old blind horse and a bottle of whiskey for a one-tenth share owned by "Old Viginny." but later sold all of his holdings to Judge James Walsh of Grass Valley for eleven thousand dollars and lost it all trying to run a store in Carson City. All of the original locators of the Lode died in poverty.

O'Riley and McLaughlin are generally credited with the discovery of the famous Lode on June 12 1859. Actually theirs was a rediscovery of the Grosch brothers' lost claim. "Old Virginny" and his associates would, with equal right, be credited with the prior discovery on Jan 28, 1859 since their claims were located at one end of the vein.

Comstock's day dreaming of his wealth and loud boasting of his exploits kept him so busy that he had no time to bake sour dough bread as did most of the miners. He therefore made pancakes and became so adept at tossing them that he came to be known in the diggings as "old Pancake." He talked so loud and long of "his mine" that the people of the district began calling it the "Comstock." Ever since that time it has borne the name of the Comstock Lode.

In 1862 after his failure as a merchant Comstock left Nevada and followed the life of a prospector and road builder in eastern Oregon, Idaho, and Montana. His hope was always for the discovery of another Big Bonanza. He did make several strikes of minor importance. Bancroft states that he and Lytle opened the first quartz vein in which free gold was visible on the Powder River; and that he surveyed a road from there which was shorter and better than the old one. On Aug 11 1862 he discovered a vein from which he took four hundred and fifty dollars in gold, according to the San Francisco Bulletin of Aug 27 1862. He was apparently active as a miner in various sections of Idaho and Montana. He accompanied the Big Horn Expedition which planned to explore and prospect the Yellowstone country.

In 1870 he was called to Nevada as a witness for the Ophir Co and was well paid for his testimony. He was said to have had considerable money on his person when he returned to Bozeman, Montana. Accounts differ as to the cause of his death there on Sept 29 1870. On his grave marker in the Bozeman Cemetery it is recorded that he "committed suicide by shooting himself through the head."

Many who knew him believe that he was murdered for the money he carried. Such an opinion is expressed in a letter written by his old friend and partner, E Penrod, to Samuel Willett Comstock. The original of this letter is here reproduced. It gives an interesting, though biased appraisal of the character of Henry T P Comstock by one of the original owners of the "Comstock Mine." Penrod's referenced to Comstock's "wife living in style in Cal." is pure fiction. The true story of Comstock's purchase of a wife from a Mormon immigrant, and of her running away twice with other men is told in Chapter IX of Dan De Quille's "Big Bananza".

In the Bozeman, Montana Cemetery "Old Pancake" rests in peace, while the silver tinkle of his name is heard around the world wherever the Comstock Lode is mentioned. Generous, boastful, kindly, illiterate, the restless spirit of the "Magnificent Liar of Washoe" lives on in the ghost towns and crumbling mine shafts of the old west. Gone is the man who gave away more gold than most people have ever seen - through whose fingers slipped a veritable flood of silver. But his record will carry down the years as one of the most colorful chapters in the story of the Big Bonanza.

-----O-----

The following is Penrods letter. It was written on a type writer with a lousy ribbon. I've tried to replicate it; placing periods, omitting spaces, placing capitals as they are entered. y seemed to come out as Y and h as n; I used h and Y in what follows. As you read perhaps you too can envisage Emanuel Penrod "Manny" bent over at the old typewriter writing in behalf of his old partner "old pancake", now gone for 29 years; about whom much of his own life and tales continued to evolved.

JULY 25" 1909.

Mr. S. W. COMSTOCK Dear sir.

Yours of July 12" i received on my return from the celebration of the 4" OF July THE 50" anniversary OF THE Discovery of the COMSTOCK MINE. i was the only Survivor of the Four who Discovered the Lode.

i and H. T. P. COMSTOCK ware Great friends. He could neither Read or write But was a good Miner and Before the Lode was Discovered. would take in and provide for anY one that was peniless and call them a partner. and BY that means'Four men who some time before he had claimed his new partners. he gave up to them which Later was worth many Millions of Dollers. he was swindled I can't call it BY anY Other name. Yet there was a sembLence of LegaLitY in Each Transaction. COMSTOCK WAS Honest AND Believed or acted as if he Believed all others was. while I did his writing.all went well' but after heGOT so MANY Partners'they did his writing.. after he sold out in the Mine.he Married and spent a Large sum of money For jewelery for his wife'then he started in to merchant Business. Bought Large Lots and shipped BY Team from CAL. When freight was 25 cts a pound'and his wife Lived in stYle in CAL. so in a bout one-Year his moneY Gave out. his Goods attached. his wife Left him. how much she got i sever heared. nor ever heared of since. COMSTOCK went to Montania. he came backas a witness on a mining suit. think early in the the Year of his Death.as the suit was settled he soon went back to montania he said to me that the company had paid him will for coming and there is no doubt in MY mind. that he was killed for at Least a part of that moneY. i never BeLieved the SUICIDE theorY. he wan NO CRANK. Looked on the Bright side of all things of his ReLatives he never spoke to me. nor where he came from. the only faulti found in him was. he took up with strangers and made confidents of them. ionest. true and strait. he was swindled on every turn.butr in a sort of Business waY. i hope i have answered Your inquiries.

Very Respecfully Yours E. Penrod

The above was typed on a ruled writing pad, probably small. Penrod made use of every bit of the page, 46 characters wide and 48 lines, barely leaving room for his signature. Penrods signature was squiggly. If he was the same age as Henry he would have been 89 when he wrote and signed the letter.

-----O-----

Linage of Henry T P Comstock:

William 1595 England

Christopher 1685 England m Hannah Platt

d 1702 Norwalk Conn

Daniel 1664 Norwalk Conn m Elizabeth Wheeler "

d 1694

Daniel 1693 " m Sarah Odell

d 1782

Able 1721 Stratford Conn m Judith Paine

d 1814 Cooperstowm NY

Daniel 1763 Warren Conn m Mehitable Miles

(17 children total!!) m Catherine Ripson

d 1828 m Roxy Armstrong

Noah 1790 93? Warren Conn m Catherine Tomkins

d 1853

Henry Tompkins Paige 1820 Trenton Ont. m ??

d1870 Bozeman Mont

end of the line